


Emperor's Best Friend

by imaginary_golux



Category: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Genre: Birthday Presents, Dogs, F/M, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-09 04:42:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18909787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux
Summary: Ino and Mireän decide their cousin Maia needs a special present for his twentieth birthday.This fic was inspired by a discussion on the Goblin Emperor discord and beta'd by my very patient Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw.





	Emperor's Best Friend

“We want to get Cousin Maia a gift for his birthday,” Ino says over dinner. Idra gives her an approving smile.

“I think that would be very kind of thee,” he says. “What did you two have in mind?”

“We want to get Cousin Maia a puppy!” Mireän chirps.

Idra pauses with his fork halfway between plate and mouth. “...A puppy?” he says.

“An emperor should have _everything_ ,” Ino says. “And Cousin Maia has never had any pets at all! He should have a puppy, and maybe a kitten too!”

“Perhaps we should limit ourselves to giving him one pet at a time,” Idra says. “But I don’t know that Cousin Maia _wants_ a puppy.”

“Of course he wants a puppy,” Mireän says. “ _Everyone_ wants a puppy.”

Idra can’t really refuse the pleading looks from _both_ of his sisters. “We can go down to the kennels tomorrow,” he says at last. “To look! Just to look!”

“Thank you!” his sisters chorus, and Idra tries to stifle the feeling that he’s just made a dreadful mistake.

*

“Oh look!” Mireän calls. “Come and look at this one! It is just exactly the same color as Cousin Maia’s eyes!”

Idra follows Ino over to the stall and leans over the low door to see Mireän sitting in a pile of hay, cuddling a smoke-grey puppy nearly as big as she is. “Mireän,” he says carefully, “that is a mastiff puppy. It is going to be a very large dog when it is grown. Dost think Cousin Maia would like a smaller pup?”

“This one is _perfect_ ,” Mireän says, frowning in determination. “Cousin Maia will love it!”

“Mireän…” Idra begins, and Ino gives him a wide-eyed, pleading look, and Idra covers his face with both hands. “Very well,” he says, muffled. “But if he does not like it, it must come back to the kennels at once, and you mustn’t give Cousin Maia any fuss about it, do you both understand?”

“Yes, Idra!” they chorus, and Idra sighs and goes to find the kennelmaster. Apparently they’re giving the emperor a mastiff for his birthday. There’s definitely no way that could go wrong.

*

Maia eyes his nieces and nephew a little warily as Ino and Mireän drag the enormous lidded basket forward. “We got thee the _best_ gift, Cousin Maia,” Ino says, grinning, as they step back.

“And if thou likest it not, we can return it whence it came at once,” Idra adds, putting a hand on each of his sisters’ shoulders. “Right?”

“Yes, Idra,” Ino says sulkily, and Maia, very carefully, opens the basket.

An _enormous_ grey _something_ comes surging out into his lap and licks him enthusiastically in the face.

“What,” Maia sputters, and manages to corral the thing into sitting down properly, still in his lap, upon which he can see that it is a puppy - a very _large_ puppy - with slate-grey fur and big dark eyes, floppy ears and enormous paws and the beginnings of proper droopy jowls. It gazes up at him with what Maia can only interpret as adoration.

“It is for thee!” Mireän says gleefully. “To be thy friend always! Thou canst name it whatever thou likest.”

Csethiro is stifling a laugh. Cala looks far too amused; Beshelar looks discomforted, as though he’d started to lunge forward to protect his emperor and had to catch himself in mid-motion. Kiru and Telimezh, not on duty but desirous of being part of the morning’s celebration nonetheless, are grinning broadly. Csevet’s expression is perfectly neutral but his ears are _highly_ amused.

“What wilt thou name it, Cousin Maia?” Ino asks eagerly.

Maia looks at the puppy. The puppy gazes adoringly at him.

“Hanevis,” he says at last. “Thou shalt be named Hanevis.”

The puppy licks his face again.

*

“A puppy,” says Nemer, voice and ears equally flat.

“It could not be white?” Avris adds, eyeing Hanevis dubiously. “Dog fur sticks most _frustratingly_ to clothing.”

“It matches His Serenity’s eyes,” Esha says, sounding rather as though he’s trying to find a silver lining in a particularly thick cloud.

“We could,” Nemer says slowly, “arrange for it to have jeweled collars.”

“To match His Serenity’s tashin sticks,” Avris says, ears perking up. “Yes, that would look very fine!”

“If it can be trained not to leap upon His Serenity…” Esha says hopefully.

Telimezh, to the surprise of everyone else in the room, raises a hand. “We have trained dogs before,” he says. “Our family had several. We will undertake to train Hanevis, and to instruct His Serenity and the zhasan that they might know how to continue the training when we are not on duty.”

“Thank you,” Maia says, fervently. _He_ has no idea how to train a dog, and it is certainly true that Hanevis appears to like to leap up and lick Maia’s face at the most inopportune times.

“This seems to be a habit,” Csethiro says, grinning. “Last year, thou wert given a horse; this year a puppy. What wilt thou receive next year, thinkest thou?”

“Oh gracious,” Maia says, very quietly. Hanevis looks up and wags his tail enthusiastically.

*

“We see we must congratulate you on your birthday gift,” Arbelan says, settling into the chair beside Maia’s throne and giving him a smile. “What a handsome dog!”

“We are informed he is a mastiff,” Maia says, gathering the puppy’s legs back into his lap. “We have named him Hanevis.”

“A fine name for a fine dog,” Arbelan says approvingly. “And a fine excuse to keep from dancing.”

Maia flushes. “We _like_ dancing,” he protests. “But it is...very crowded, and we are not yet so skilled as to feel comfortable dancing with all comers.”

“And so, the dog,” Arbelan says, smiling more broadly. “Well, we congratulate you again, and also we ask your permission to steal your young secretary, who has a fine talent for dancing.”

Csevet blushes. Maia chuckles. “Go on,” he says. “We do not think we will need your services for a little while at least.”

Csevet bows to him and then to Arbelan, and escorts her down onto the dancing floor graciously. Csethiro claims the empty chair shortly afterwards.

“We did not know that sitting on the emperor’s lap for all of Winternight was an option,” she teases, grinning when Maia flushes again. “Shall we be jealous of the pup, that it has the honor we do not?”

“Wouldst _want_ to sit upon my lap all night?” Maia asks, quietly enough that his nohecharei can pretend not to hear. Csethiro gives him a bright, mischievous grin.

“Perhaps I would,” she replies, just as quietly. “Wouldst want me there, dear one?”

Maia swallows. “Wouldst perhaps be a bit distracting,” he says. Csethiro giggles.

“We suppose we might,” she allows, standing. “ _Next_ Winternight, we shall ask that you dance with us.”

“By then, we shall surely be a fine enough dancer to do so, under your wise tutelage,” Maia replies, and she grins and leans down to kiss his cheek gently - he can hear the wave of whispers starting, the emperor and his wife kissing in public, what wonderful gossip! - and goes off in search of a new dancing partner.

Maia gathers Hanevis a little more comfortably into his lap, and the pup looks up at him and wags its tail as hard as ever it can. Well. Maia is frankly not quite sure how to respond to such blatant devotion, but it’s…

Well, it’s rather nice. Perhaps his nieces were right to think he ought to have a dog.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been thinking of the dog as being a Neapolitan Mastiff, which are bred as guard dogs. They get up to 150 pounds; let's hope Telimezh _is_ good at training dogs.
> 
> Hanevis Athmaza is the nohecharis who died to save Beltanthiar III.


End file.
